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Friday, 29 January 2010

If, like me, you live in England then over exposure to sunlight is not high on your list of worries, however I imagine that for some people the sun can be a bit of a worry. Well according to a growing body of research, women with endometriosis are joining the ranks of those who shouldn’t venture into the sun very often. The most recent article on this subject found that women with endo are more sensitive to the sun than women who don’t have endo. This may tie in with other findings which suggest women with endometriosis have more moles and freckles than controls. This further makes sense of other research that found that women with endo are more at risk of developing skin cancer.

So in order to break it down further:1) If you have endometriosis you are more likely to have fair skin and more moles and freckles2) Thus you are more sensitive to the sun’s radiation and more likely to burn quicker and more easily when exposed to the sun3) Thus you are at a higher risk of skin cancer

I’m not sure why this appears to be the case, maybe there are genetic traits that come with fair skin and freckles that make a woman more susceptible to developing endometriosis. I should probably point out as well that the current research does not suggest sun exposure causes endo. I firmly believe endometriosis is something you are born with and therefore, unlike melanoma, no amount of sunscreen can avoid.

Endometriosis Update

Endometriosis is an enigmatic disease, little is known about its origins, but it affects the lives of millions of women around the world. Despite the apparent lack of advancement in the field of endometriosis research, progress is slowly being made. The problem is that this progress is very rarely reported accurately to the public in a way everyone can understand. This Blog aims to report what is going on in the area of endometriosis research in plain and simple terms, so that everyone can keep up to date. Updates will be pretty sporadic but I'll try to report items of interest as often as possible.